%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |   My journey through (and beyond) the valley with Cancer as my companion. |
|
Dear Friend: This is not a Blog about writing! (I already have one of those.) This is a blog about a journey I am taking with illness. I have recently been diagnosed with Cancer. My goal is honest therapy as I progress through, and beyond this new reality in my life. I hope that, somewhere along the way you will find some words that will help you too. While this is, in fact, an interactive Blog, I hope that you will scroll slowly down this page. For you see, the front of this Blog IS my journey. The entries are conversations that are held along the journey.Yes, there is a lot on it--before actually getting to the Blog entries. But, I hope that by the objects and words which appear before the Blog itself, you might come to understand just a little bit about me, and my journey, and some truly amazing friends who have agreed to journey with me. I hope that you, too, will choose to accompany me on my walk--through the Valley. I invite you to join me, and discover the wondrous truths, meet some truly amazing people, and share those "memorable" moments this journey will undoubtedly present. Come along, won't you? In His Care, ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Would you like to help me help others? I found this amazing organization, and I am proud to be a sponsor. I hope you will check it out. It's called The Network For Good.  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "RISUS OMNIA - INCRUMENTUS PER DEDECUS - SAPIENTIA PER DAMNUM" ("Every thing is funny - Growth through humiliation - Wisdom through loss") ~Leunig~ The hilltop hour would not be half so wonderful if there were no dark valleys to traverse. ~Helen Keller~ "If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people." ~Virginia Woolf~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "There is strength in truth." ~The Barton Family Crest~ ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” — Helen Keller, American social activist, public speaker and author (1880-1968) I have moved the list of my thanks for those who have helped to make this little Blog so very special. I hope that you will take a moment to read the list, growing every day, and let these fellow travellers along this journey know that you appreciate the contributions they make to our walk together.
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4 ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Please feel free to click on the Blog Rings icon below to be transported to some of the very best of the Best Bloggers around WDC. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** If you are new to WDC, or to our Blogging community, I highly recommend the monthly edition of "The Blogville News". Feel free to click below, and let Scarlett   know that a Blogger sent ya!Hey! We've started a Christian's Blog Ring on WDC. Click on the logo, and join us! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Budroe
 Ring LeaderI have three publications at the moment. Here is a link to purchase my latest one. Buy a great read, and help a fellow writer out, Okay?  ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| Okay, just caalllmmmm down! I don't need 911 for sick people. I need 911 for writing people. Here's the deal: In following the idea given me for the "Encounters With Christ" experience, several "topics" have come to light that I believe need to be included in the work...at some point. Think of the aforementioned "topics" as tiles on a Scrabble board, okay? They tend to arrive in clumps, or groups of tiles. (My thinking process here.) I know that, within the given "topics", there is a "correct" linear order to them. One will follow another in logical order. I just have to figure out how to spell it correctly with the topics ("tiles") I have been given. Draw a huge line under that. As I work to arrange the tiles correctly, sometimes one of the topics will scream at me to pay attention to it. It's sort of like, when you are writing a novel and one of your characters, literally out of nowhere, demands your full and complete (and artistic) attention! Sometimes, I ignore them. Sometimes, I simply sit back and observe them as they throw their own particular hissy fit. Sometimes, I inquire of them. They exist, after all, for a reason. And, relative to my current conundrum, a particular moment with a character needs to be had because they want to tell me some important thing (seldom important to them, incidentally) about the arrangement of the tiles--in such cases a plot point, a development, etc. that I either completely miss, or one I have incorrectly interpreted. I thought they said "Red!", INFERRED the character's intentions, then transliterated what I thought they meant into the narrative. It makes no sense. It won't fit. That's my clue that I may want to revisit what the original moment communicated to me. I know something is out of place, wrong, or incorrectly interpreted. I then return to it, the scene of the, and start over only to discover that what the character MEANT was not "Red!", but "SHRED!" I hope you will follow this example along, because it is how I make some sense of my current conundrum seeking your input. Once clarified, I realize the character hollered only to give me a stack of financial documents detailing the specifics of the crime I am attempting to get away with. I hear the sirens, I see the flashing lights from my 21st story office in the depths of the night. I look down and see a pile of papers in my hand. I look over, and to my right and see a shredder. The plot thins. I now realize what the character MEANT, and it was not what I read, or heard, or however the idiot decides to interrupt my peace. Look. I know this is an ageless problem. You, reading this, are much more likely than not to be not only a writer, but a writer who has come to know at least somewhat of me as a writer, too. Let me explain the conundrum. When the character shows up, or the tile becomes alluring, or important, or necessary--NOW, it is not in the correct moment, the correct place. While she's going on about shredders, in say the middle of the book, I'm writing the introduction of her murderer in Chapter 1! Sounds like a great problem to have, right? Well, it is NOT! I write linearly, and I always have. I begin at the beginning and write through, step by step to the end. That may (obviously) not be my ideation, or creation style. I may create the "incident" first, or the moment of realization first. But that is not how I write. So, the shredder is, in this example out of place. Good stuff, just at the wrong time in the writing process. Besides, by the time my writing arrives in the office, facing the shredder, it may make absolutely NO sense. I left that bunny trail long ago, and see no clear way back to the shredder--especially now. So, my fellow writers, where do you "put" it? Stop and write the shredder scene, and set it aside for later evaluation, inclusion, or deletion in your notebook, or OneNote, or Scrivener, or Word folder? In the last two days, two different "tiles" or topics for the Encounters has come flying into my reality. They both are singularly important, and they both require quite a bit of preparation before they can be effectively written. And, they both are completely out of place in terms of where I am writing at the moment. I believe they are much too important to the Encounters to lose, or miss, or write poorly. They need and require me in the process, and that means I must move my location to get to them. How can you help? Simple. Have you writers had these moments in your creative process? How have you dealt with them? How do you keep them "understood" in your mind so you can place them in the correct moment later? Where do you store them? I've not had this experience before. Here is the deal. From the interruptions, much has come. 1.I need to remember that the writer is responsible for the intentions laid down in the writing. I need to effectively communicate to the reader what I mean by the choice and use of the words they will read. For me, in this particular writing environment, that is not a helpful hint: it is an absolute requirement. 2. I need to create a way to validate for myself, as writer, what the reader will interpret the words to mean. I cannot guarantee that they will not, as in the example, do what I did and miss the meaning of the word(s) entirely by inserting themselves and their understanding into the words I have written. (In mystery writing, this awareness can make for a whale of a red herring, you know!) I can surely gently nudge them toward an inevitable end point. I can shove the meaning in the reader's face, but like the horse at the river.... 3. Is it (I think it is!) the writer's obligation to help the reader understand that the reader's job is to FIRST read what the writer WROTE! The writer owns the words written. This truth not only enforces the fact that words have power, but antagonizes the words written. In novels, failure on the part of the writer is that the novel will usually fail. If the words fail the reader it is usually because the reader usually and automatically translates what is written into what they think (they, the writer, or the gods of Xenon 9) meant to say. This is a terrible tragedy for the writing in either regard. Now, about those tiles. Oh, wait. We never left them. Is this why we re-write? Doesn't that always come later? I want to work the tiles (2) which are currently screaming at me for attention. They are decidedly out of order. One tile looks like a "p". Later, it may look like a "b". Oh, yeah. That IS my job as a writer, isn't it. Where can I keep these out-of-order, non-linear but accurately portrayed tiles on my WDC homesite, without incorrectly placing them within the linear space of a book here? Suggestions, recommendations welcome. Sorry for the rant, but they just "showed up". |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
